Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Dr google

Hi,A patient came in today with calf pain he had had for a week after falling off of his bike. After a google to come up with the possible causes for this, he was adamant that he had acute compartment syndrome. This is a medical emergency where the trauma to the limb causes so much swelling it cuts off the blood supply, meaning the tissue becomes more damaged and inflamed due to to the lack of blood. A vicious circle. His leg looked completely normal.It took me a very long time to try and convince him that Dr google was not in an ideal position to assess his leg, and if he did have acute compartment syndrome his leg would have destroyed itself by now. After 30 minutes of my time he left to try some paracetamol and rest.